Is Life Insurance Part of an Estate?

Whether or not life insurance is part of an estate depends on your understanding of a few key properties. Find out if life insurance is part of an estate with help from the managing partner at an insurance organization in this free video clip.

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Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Mitchell Smith, managing partner of Universal Insurance Services and Universal Partners. Today, we're going to discuss: Is life insurance a part of your estate? Knowing if a product is part of your estate, whether it's life insurance or something else, is pretty important. When you own something, meaning that you individually own it, so such as life insurance, if you're the insured and the owner of that policy it would be include-able in your estate, or your total net worth. That could be a dilemma for you. Depending on the state you live and the federal income tax at that time, you could pay a majority of taxes if something happens to you, which wouldn't be great for your heirs or your beneficiary. What we suggest, typically, is to buy a trust, which is a low cost, but it's a policy inside of a trust and that will avoid the estate tax in that situation. But yes, of course, if life insurance is owned in your name it will be a part of your estate. Thanks for watching today's discussion: Is life insurance a part of your estate?